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| Working sitting on a stool due to her disability, Fanny Farmer showed a young student the mysteries of the measuring cup and spoons. |
On
January 7, 1896 a book that revolutionized American
kitchen and changed the lives of women was published for the first time. The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book was compiled and written by the school’s 41
year old director, Fannie Farmer. It was comprehensive in scope, and well
organized. Packed with detailed,
step-by-step directions and specific measurements of ingredients, it allowed
home cooks—both professionals and housewives—to create consistent meals that
turned out the same every time. Not only
was it an immediate best seller, but Farmer kept it up to date through 21 more editions
in her lifetime. It is still kept up to
date with regular editions by Farmer’s successors and is published today as the
Fannie Farmer Cookbook—the
one cookbook found in most homes.
Born in Boston,
Massachusetts on March 23, 1857, Farmer was the eldest daughter of a master
printer and his wife. She grew up in Medford where, despite their class, her
parents prepared her for a college education.
It was a cultured, Unitarian
home. But at age 15 Fannie’s dreams for
higher education were dashed when
she suffered a paralytic stroke. She was
bed ridden for over a year and only slowly recovered the ability to walk,
although she had a limp there after. As
she was able, she began to help her mother around the house. Eventually she developed a special interest
in cooking. When her mother opened the
home to boarders, Fannie’s outstanding cooking attracted more roomers than they
could handle.
To help bring cash income to the home, Farmer went
to work as a cook in the home of Mr. and
Mrs. Charles Shaw, a wealthy and influential family. Recognizing not only her gift in the kitchen,
but Farmers eagerness to learn, Mrs. Shaw encouraged her to enroll in the Boston Cooking School, an establishment
for professional household cooks operated by Carrie
M. Dearborn
which emphasized not only kitchen procedures, but scientific nutrition, the
chemistry of cooking, sanitation and household management. Farmer was 30 years old when she started at
the school and was soon the star pupil and Dearborn’s top assistant. After she graduated in 1889, she became assistant director and the school’s top
instructor. When Dearborn died, Farmer
became Principle 1891.
Since
1884 the school had used a moderately successful cookbook Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book, by Mary J. Lincoln. But Farmer
was dissatisfied and set out to revise it.
The effort took years and became, essentially a whole new creation. Key was Farmer’s insistence on strict
adherence to precise measurements. “A cupful is measured level ... A tablespoonful is measured level. A
teaspoonful is measured level.” she insisted.
In
1902 Farmer left the Boston School to found her own establishment, Miss Farmer's School of Cookery. She soon expanded her interests, and the
school curriculum beyond basic cooking skills and kitchen management for the
gentlewoman to nutrition, and particularly to preparation of palatable food for
sick and infirm. She considered this the
most important work of her lifetime. She
published Food and Cookery for the
Sick and Convalescent which
was so well regarded that she lectured at Harvard
Medical School on diet and nutrition.
Farmer’s influence spread through a regular column
in the leading magazine Woman's Home
Companion which ran for nearly ten years. She also lectured widely and contributed
articles to daily newspapers and other periodicals. Although she suffered
another disabling stroke, after a period of convalescence she returned to her
rigorous schedule.
Farmer gave her last lecture from a wheel chair
just three weeks before she died in Boston on January
15, 1915 at
the age of 58. She was interred at
historic Mt. Auburn Cemetery
alongside Boston’s literary greats, important statesmen, and Unitarian elite.
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